Identifying Leaders

Identifying leaders that will guide your organization successfully to 2050 and beyond isn’t always easy. If you’re lucky and have a mature talent management strategy; you have corporate values, a mission, onboarding guides, succession plans, and high potential programs designed to groom the best leaders. You may look at standard 360° feedback scores, performance ratings, do rapid performance feedback, and study how well your employees and customers are engaged with each leader. But you may be missing some fundamental measures of what makes a great leader.

Take a few moments to think about times in your career you have worked with various leaders who are very self-aware vs. those who are not. We know that great leaders have deep awareness on many dimensions.

You want leaders who will self-direct their own development and their careers. Executive Core has a validated assessment that will help measure your leaders’ growth over time called the Awareness 20/20™. Find out how well your leaders are:

Constantly making new discoveries about themselves

Taking ownership of their experience — not blaming others for their misfortunes

Developing new strategies, skills, and ways of thinking that allow them to satisfy their needs with little detriment to others

Accepting the consequences of their actions

Developing a way of thinking that helps them remain resilient during tough times without overly relying on others to help

Asking for and offering help to others in a way that demonstrates balanced reciprocity

The 720° feedback allows a leader to see him or herself over time. The process begins with a 360° assessment of feedback gathered from a supervising leader, direct reports, colleagues, and others (customers, suppliers, volunteers, other professional relationships). This first assessment (360°) is useful for setting a baseline and identifying clear leadership growth goals. Later, in six months to a year, the feedback can be collected again (720°) to measure progress.